REDPOLES. 115 



FRINGILLA RUFESCENS, FRINGILLA LINARIA, AND FR1N- 

 G1LLA HORNEMANN1. 



LESSER REDPOLE, MEALY REDPOLE, and GREENLAND 



REDPOLE. 



(PLATE 12.) 



The Redpole is subject to considerable variation throughout its wide 

 range, which appears to be circumpolar. Examples from Western Europe 

 are very small (varying in length of wing from 2*8 to 2'5 inches) and are 

 very rufous ; the prevailing colour of the margins of the feathers is pale 

 huffish brown, and the stripes on the back, rump, flanks, and under tail- 

 coverts are very distinct, and the breast of the adult male in breeding- 

 plumage is rich carmine. Proceeding eastwards, through North Europe, 

 North Asia, and North America, to Greenland, the tendency is to become 

 larger and whiter, the extreme form in Greenland varying in length of wing 

 from 3*3 to 3'1 inches, intermediate continental forms measuring from 3'0 to 

 2*65 inches. In the Greenland bird the red on the breast is a delicate pink, 

 the streaks on the rump, under tail-coverts, and flanks are nearly or quite 

 obsolete, and the margins of the feathers are pure white. In Arctic Europe, 

 Asia, and America every intermediate form between these two occurs ; and 

 the variety of plumage thus occasioned is further complicated by the 

 differences which are attributable to age, sex, and season. The 

 West-European form is known as F. mfescens, and the Greenland form 

 as F. hornemanni. The intermediate forms are known as F. linaria, 

 which may be considered the typical form, of which the two extremes 

 just mentioned are varieties. Some ornithologists, as Dresser and 

 Newton, have attempted to separate these intermediate forms into two 

 species ; others, as Ridgway, make three ; whilst Coues and Horneyer 

 make four. Each of the characters relied upon, whether it be the size of 

 the bill, the colour of the breast, the absence or otherwise of streaks on the 

 rump or under tail-coverts, or the extent of white on the plumage, would 

 draw a line in a series in a different place ; but as none of these lines 

 would be geographical ones, it seems the wisest course to regard the 

 intermediate race as very variable, the two extremes of variation alone 

 having any geographical limits distinct from those of the typical form. The 

 synonymy of the three forms is as follows : 



